Saturday, April 05, 2008

White House Yawns At MLK Anniversary

By MARC MCDONALD

Friday was a day that the world remembered the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., who was killed 40 years ago in Memphis. Hillary Clinton and John McCain spoke to audiences in Memphis. In Chicago, Barack Obama spoke about King's legacy.

While the world commemorated King's achievements, the 40th anniversary seemed to draw nothing more than a big yawn at the White House. George W. Bush met with the prime minister of Romania. The only comment the White House had on the MLK anniversary was a short, bland, generic statement on the White House Web site. By contrast, the statement for something called "National Tartan Day" was actually much lengthier than the White House statement about King.

It's clear at this point that Bush can't even be bothered to go through the motions of acting like he cares about African-Americans. (Actually, this was apparent to many Americans long before Kanye West's "George Bush doesn't care about black people" remark during a Hurricane Katrina benefit concert).

Bush has long shown complete and utter contempt for civil rights. In this regard, he's following in the Bush family footsteps. (Recall how his father, George H.W. Bush, campaigned against the 1964 Civil Rights Act).

During the 2000 campaign, George W. Bush made it a point to stop by Bob Jones University, where he praised the officials at that school (which incredibly still had a ban on interracial dating). This, no doubt, played real well to the "I don't want my white daughter dating a Negro" racist crowd---but the rest of us were shocked and appalled.

Indeed, in the Bush era, we've seen nothing less than the return of Jim Crow. How else to explain things like the 2000 election, in which record numbers of black voters were disenfranchised. As Greg Palast has documented, about one million black voters didn't count in the 2000 presidential election.

Against this backdrop, it shouldn't really be surprising that the 40th anniversary of King's assassination drew nothing more than a big yawn at the White House.

What exactly would you have him do? Put on blackface and do a little dance? MLK is dead and his generation is almost gone. The Civil Rights Movement was a resounding success. The nation has suffered, healed, grown and moved on. I suggest you do the same.

In response to the previous comment: I think this proves a point some of us have been making for years.

And that is: a lot of people (particularly Republicans) are bigoted racists, without even realizing that they're bigoted racists.

I've talked to a number of these Bush-voting Republicans over the years. They'll scream and holler all day long that they're not bigots. But get a couple of beers into them and get them relaxed to where they let their guard down and they'll start spewing all their real beliefs about how "all N*ggers should be shipped back to Africa."

These are exactly the sort of bigots who applauded when Bush saluted the officials at Bob Jones University.

These are the sort of people who bristle as the "tyranny" of political correctness. They accuse African-Americans of being "too sensitive" over racial issues.

The interesting thing is, these bigots themselves have the thinnest skin of anyone in America. They always throw a hissy fit if you dare say anything negative about their adored heroes, George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan.

Black racism is the greatest enemy of colored people today. Jeremiah Wright, Barak Obama, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farakkan...all rabid racists...and all faces of black leadership. And who will fill their shoes? Rap artists? Who is the new black leadership? Will they ever take ownership of the freedoms won for them with the blood of 600,000 dead WHITE Civil War soldiers and the economic sacrifices of countless millions of WHITE men who continue to suffer under the unconstitutional oppression that is affirmative action? Equality was won when the Republican party overcame the objections of senate Democrats such as Al Gore's father in order to secure Civil Rights for all Americans via the Civil Rights Act. The law gives rights. It regulates employers and merchants. It cannot, does not and should not regulate the thoughts and wills and the speech of Americans, even if they were despicable enough to be born without as much pigment as some others. Why do you liberals continue to seek to create divides between groups based on race, color, religion and gender? Although you were defeated in the sixties and the Civil Rights Act was forced upon you, you must realize you have lost. You need to accept that people are all the same. Nobody is born better than another person. Everyone in America has the same opportunities, and it is the responsibility of each individual to seize those opportunities in order to improve themselves. Improvements in society can be made without sacrifice. When liberals stop segregating groups and when they begin promoting legislation that benefits all citizens and not just arbitrary color coded groups, true racial liberty will be achieved. That is the message of Dr. King. Now, can't we just all get along?

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About This Blog

Welcome to BeggarsCanBeChoosers.com, the progressive political blog of Marc McDonald. A Texas journalist, McDonald worked for 15 years for several newspapers, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, before he quit his day job and set up shop in cyberspace in 1995. McDonald's articles have appeared in a number of popular progressive Web sites, including Crooks and Liars, The Reaction, Buzzflash.com, Salon.com, OpEdNews.com, The Neil Rogers Show and The Raw Story. McDonald's Web articles have also been featured and reviewed by various national and international media, including CNN Headline News, the BBC, CBS, the Washington Post, USA Today and many more. On June 3, 2011, I was interviewed on the progressive radio program, "Voices at Work." Go here to hear my interview with host Ron Gonyea. I am always available for media interviews on progressive issues. Contact me here.